Early Missionaries and Pioneer Wagon Trains

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Visit googlestore. com to learn more and start a new relationship with your health. requires Google account, Google Health app, Internet, and Google Health Pmium subscript Feature subject to change, availability and results vary, not intended for medical purposes, Wors independently of Gemini apps, cheheck responses for accuracy Welcome to the I canan't sleep podcast where I help you drift off one fact at a time I'm your host, Benjamin Boster And today's episode is about the Oregon Trail Your summer weekends fill up fast, but Crocs has your back. Road trips, beach days, last minute getaways, whatever's on the agenda, swing by your local store and find your new goat too Try it, style it, make it yours. becausecause the right pair doesn't just show up It shows off Wockk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest crox store today Good sleep is everything That's why Oie's science back support is made with a blend of melatonin and LDNine for both kiddles and grownups. So when your mind won't switch off, you've got something that can help Yeracing thoughts and restless nights won't stand a chance Find Ollie sleep solutions for the whole family at alie. com. That's O L L Y d. com. The Oregon Trail was a two thousand one hundred and seventy mile east west large wheeled wagon route and immigrant trail in North America that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon territory The eastern part of the Oregon Til crossed what is now the states of Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming western half cross the current states of Idaho and Oregon The Oregon trail was laid by fur traders and trappers From about eighteen eleven to eighteen forty. and was initially only passable on foot or horseback. By eighteen thirty six, when the first migrant wagon train was organized in Independence, Missouri A wagon trail had been cleared to Fort Hall, Idaho Wagon trails were cleared increasingly farther west and eventually reached the Willama Valley in Oregon. at which point what came to be called the Oregon trail was complete Further improvements in the form of bridges, cutoffs, perries and roads made the trip faster and safer From starting points in Iowa, Missouri, or Nebraska territory The routes covered along the Lower Platte River Valley near Fort Kearney, Nebraska Territory They led to fertile farmlands west of the Rocky mountains. The Oregon trail and its many offshoots were used by about four hundred thousand settlers, farmers, miners, ranchers, and business owners and their families to get to the area known as Oregon ended surroundings. W traffic especially thick from eighteen forty six to eighteen sixty nine The eastern half of the trail was also used by travelers on the California Trail from eighteen forty three. The Mormon Til from eighteen forty seven and the Boseman trail from eighteen sixty three before turning off to their separate destinations Use of the trail declined after the first Trcontinental Railroad was completed in eighteen sixty nine. making the trip west substantially faster, cheaper and safer Since the mid twentieth century, modern highways such as Interstate eighty and interstate eighty four Fllow parts of the same course westward pass through towns originally established to serve those using the Oregon Til. The first land route across the present day contiguous United States was mapped by the Lewis and Clark expedition between eighteen oh four and eighteen oh six Following these eighteen oh three instructions from President Thomas Jefferson to Merarywather Lewis The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River. and such principles stream of it. as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean Whether there's Columbia, Oregon Colorado and or other river may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for commerce Although Lewis and William Clarark found a path to the Pacific Ocean It was neither direct nor practicable for prairie schooner wagons to pass through without considerable roadwork The two passes they found going through the Rocky mountains Bouse and lowow passath. turned out to be much too difficult On the return trip in eighteen oh six They traveled from the Columbia River to the Snake River Clearwater river over the Lolo passass again They then traveled overland up the Blackfoot Rriver and cross the continental divide at Lewis and Clark Pass. as it would become known and on to the head of the Missouri River This was ultimately a shorter and faster route than the one they followed west This route had the disadvantages of being much too rough for wagons and controlled by the Blackfoot tribes Even though Lewis and Clarark had only traveled a narrow portion of the Upper Missouri River drainage part of the Columbia River drainage These were considered the two major rivers draining most of the Rocky mountains And the expedition confirmed that there was no easy route through the northern Rocky mountains as Jefferson had hoped. Nonetheless, this famous expedition mapped both the easastern and western river valleys. pllat and Snake rivers at Bookke and the Route of the Oregon Trail and other emigrant trails across the continental divide They just had not located the south passass or some of the interconnecting valleys later used in the high country They showed the way for the mountain men, who within a decade Found a better way across even if it was not an easy way. The Pacific fur Company PFC founded in eighteen ten by John Jacob Astor. as a subsidiary of his American fur company AFC operated in the Pacific Northwest in the North American furd trade Two movements of BFC employees were planned by Astor One sent to the Columbia River aboard the merchant ship Tunquin. The other dispatched overland under an expedition led by Wilson Price Huter Hunt and his party were to find possible supply routes and trapping territories for further fur trading posts Upon arriving at the river in march eighteen eleven The Donquin crew began building what became Fort Astoria. The ship left supplies and men to continue work on the station and ventured north of the coast to Clquat Sound for a trading expedition Well anchored there Jonathan Thorne insulted an elder Plu Cuiat who was previously elected by the natives to negotiate a mutually satisfactory price for animal beltts. Under H Fearing attacked by the Netssi Topppie. The oververland expedition veered south of Lewis and Clark's route into what is now Wyoming and in the process passed across Union Pass and into Jackson, Hole, Wyoming. From there, they went over the Teton range by a Teton pass and then down to the Snake River into modern Idaho They abandoned their horses, said the Snake Rriver madeade dug out canoes and attempted to use the river for transport After a few days' travel, they soon discovered that steep canyons, waterfalls, and impassable rapids made travel by river impossible too far from their horses to retrieve them They had to cash most of their goods and walk the rest of the way to the Columbia River where they made new boats and traveled to the newly established Bortistoria The expedition demonstrated that much of the route along the Snake River Pain and across to the Columbia was passible by packtrain. or with minimal improvements even wagons This knowledge would be incorporated into the concatenated trail segments. as the Oregon trarail took its early shape. Pacific fur compomany partner, Robert Stewart led a small group of men back east to report to Aster. The group planned to retrace the path followed by the oververland expedition back up to the east following the Columbia and Snake rivers fear of a Native American attack near Union Pass in Wyoming force the group further south. where they discovered South Pass a wide and easy pass over the continental divide The party continued east by the sweetwater Rriver Nor' Platt River. where they spent the winter of eighteen twelve to thirteen Platt River to the Missouri River Finally arriving in Staint Louis in the spring of eighteen thirteen The route they had used to potentially be a practical wagon route requiring minimal improvements and Stewart's journals. provided a meticulous account of most of the round. Because of the war of eighteen twelve and the lack of U. S fur trading posts in the Pacific Northwest Most of the route was unused for more than ten years In august eighteen eleven Three months after Ford Dstoria was established David Thompson and his team of Northwest Company Explorers came floating down the Columbia to Fort Astoria He had just completed a journey through much of Western Canada and most of the Columbia River drainage system He was mapping a country for possible fur trading posts. Along the way, he camped at the confluence of the Columbia and Snake Rrivers He posted a notice claiming the land for Britain and stating the intention of the Northwest Company to build a forord on the side when the War of eighteen twelve broke out The managers at Fort Astoria were concerned the British Navy would seize their forts and supplies And in eighteen thirteen, they sold out to the Northwest Comany By eighteen twenty one, intense competition between the Hudson's Bay Company HPC and the Northwest Company. reached the point of armed hostilities and the British government pressured the two companies to merge The newly reconfigured HBC had a near monopoly on trading and most governing issues in the Columbia District or Oregon country as it was referred to by the Americans. and also in Rupert's land That year the British Parliament passed a statute applying the laws of Upper Canada to the district and giving the HBC power to enforce those laws. From eighteen thirteen to the early eighteen forties British through the NWC and HBC had nearly complete control of the Pacific Northwest and the western half of the Oregon trarail. In theory, the Treaty of Gend which ended the war of eighteen twelve restored possession of U. S. property in Oregon territory to the United States The Joint occupation of the region was formally established by the Anglo American Convention of eighteen eighteen The British through the HPC tried to discourage any U. S. trappers, traders, and settlers from work or settlement in the Pacific Northwest by oververland travel American missionaries and early settlers, initially mostly ex trappers started showing up in Oregon in the late eighteen twenties Although officially the HBC discouraged settlement because it interfered with its lucrative fur trade, It manager at Ford Vancouver, John McLaughlin gave substantial help including employment until they could get established In the early eighteen forties, thousands of American settlers arrived and soon greatly outnumbered the British settlers in Oregon Cuoughlland, despite working for the HPC, gave help in the form of loans, medical care, shelter Posing. food supplies and seed to U. S. immigrants These new immigrants often arrived in Oregon tired Worn out nearly penniless was insufficient food or supplies justust his winter was coming on McLououghghlin would later be hailed as the father of Oregon The York Factory Express Estestablishing another route to the Oregon territory evolved from an earlier express brigade used by the Northwest Company, Between Fort Astoria and Fort William Ontario on Lake Superior By eighteen twenty five, the HBC started using two brigades each setting out from opposite ends of the express route One from Ford Vancouver. on the Columbia River and the other from York Factory in Hudson Bay in spring passing each other in the middle of the continent This established a quick about O hundred days for two thousand six hundred miles one way to transport personnel in transmit messages between Ford Vancouver New York Factory on Hudson Bay The HBC built a new, much larger Ford Vancouver in eighteen twenty five about ninety miles upstream from Fort Astoria on the north side of the Columbia River They were hoping that Colombia would be the future Canada U. S border. The Ford quickly became the center of activity in the Pacific Northwest Every year, ships would come from London to the Pacific via Cape Horn to drop off supplies and trade goods in its trading posts Pacific Northwest pick up the accumulated furs used to pay for these supplies It was a nexus for the fur trade on the Pacific cooast Its influence reached from the Rocky mountains to the Hawaiian islands and from Russian Alaska into Mexican controlled California att its pinnacle in about eighteen forty The manager of Ford Vancouver watched over thirty four outposts S ships and about six hundred employees. When American emigration over the Oregon trail began in earnest in the early eighteen forties For many settlers, the fort became the last stop on the Oregon Trail where they could get supplies, aid and help before starting their homesteads Fort Vancouver was the main resupply point for nearly all Oregon trail travelers. until U S towns could be established The HPC established Fort Colville in eighteen twenty five on the Columbia River. Kettle Falls has a good side to collect furs and control the Upper Columbia River fur trade Fort Niscalle was built near the present town of Duont, Washington and was the first HBC Ford on Puget Sound Ford Victoria was erected in eighteen forty three and became the headquarters of operations in British Columbia. eventually growing into modern day Victoria The capital city of British Columbia By eighteen forty, the HBC had three Fords He. Boy see. and Fort Nz Purse on the western end of the Oregon trarail route as well as Fort Vancouver near its terminus in the Woolama Valley with minor exceptions They all gave substantial and often desperately needed aid to the early Oregon trail pioneers When the fur trade slowed in the eighteen forties because of fashion changes in men's hats The value of the Pacific Northwest to the British was seriously diminished Canada had few potential settlers. who are willing to move more than two thousand five hundred miles to the Pacific Northwest. Although several hundred ex trappers, British and American, and their families did start settling in what became Oregon and Washington In eighteen forty one, James Sinclair on orders from HBC governor Sir George Simpson guided nearly two hundred settlers from the Red River colony into the Oregon territory This attempt at settlement failed when most of the families joined the settlers in the Willma Valley was their promise of free land. NHBC free government In eighteen forty six, the Oregon Treaty ending the Oregon boundary dispute was signed with Britain The British lost much of the land they had so long controlled The new Canada United States border was established at the forty ninth parallel to the Pacific cooast then dipping south around Vancouver Island The treaty granted the HPC navigation rights on the Columbia River for supplying their fur posts. clear titles to their trading posts, properties allowing them to be sold later if they wanted. and left the British with a good anchorage at Victoria It gave the United States most of what it wanted A reasonable boundary and a good anchorage on the west coast in Bugget Sound Well, there were a few United States settlers in the future state of Washington in eighteen forty six The United States had already demonstrated it could induce thousands of settlers to go to the Oregon territory. and it would be only a short time before they would vastly outnumber a few hundred HBC employees and retirees living in the region Reports from the expxeditions in eighteen oh six by Lieutenant Zebulin Pike And in eighteen nineteen by Major Stephen Long describbe the Great plains as unfit for human habitation. and is the great American desert. These descriptions were mainly based on the relative lack of timber and surface water. The images of sandy wastelands conjured up by terms like desert were tempered by the many reports of vast herds of millions of planes bison but somehow managed to live in this desert In the eighteen forties, the Great Plains appeared to be unattractive for settlement. and were illegal for homesteading until well after eighteen forty six. Initially it was set aside by the U.S government for Native American settlements The next available land for General settlement, Oregon beared to be free for the taking and had fertile lands disease free climate extxtensive forests. Big rivers potential se ports. and only a few nominally British settlers Fur trappers often working for fur traders followed nearly all possible streams looking for beaver in the years when the fir trade was active Besides describing and naming many of the rivers and mountains in the Inner Mountain West and Pacific Northwest They often kept diaries of their travels and were available as guides and consultants when the trails started to become open for general travel The fur trade business wound down to a very low level justust as the Oregon trail traffic seriously began around eighteen forty In the fall of eighteen twenty three Jedediah Smith and Thomas Fitzpatrick led their trapping crews south from the Yellowstone River to the Seetwater R river. They were looking for a safe location to spend the winter. Smith reasoned since the sweet water flowed east It must eventually run into the Missouri River trying to transport their extensive fur collection down the sweetwater and North Plat rivers They found after a near disastrous canoe crash that the rivers were too swift and rough. for water passage On july fourth, eighteen twenty four, they cashed their furs under a dome of rock they named independence Rck and started their long track on foot the Missouri River Upon arriving back in a settled area They bought pack horses on credit and retrieved their furs They discovered the route that Robert Stewart had taken in eighteen thirteen, eleven years before Thomas Fitzpatrick was often hired as a guide when the fur trade dwindled in eighteen forty. Up to three thousand mountain men were trappers and explorers employed by various British and United States fur companies who are working as free trappers who roam the North American Rocky mountains from about eighteen ten to the early eighteen forties They usually traveled in small groups for mutual support and protection. pping took place in the fall when the fur became prime Mountain men primarily trapped beaver and sold the skins A good beaver skin could bring up to four dollars at a time when a man's wage was of than one dollar per day Some were more interested in exploring the West In eighteen twenty five, the first significant American rendezvous occurred on the Henry's Fork of the Green River. The trading supplies were broadened by a large party using pack trains originating on the Missouri River The trading supplies were brought in by a large party using pack trains originating on the Missouri River These pack trains were then used to haul out the furbales They normally use the north side of the Platte River The same route used twenty years later by the Mormon trarail For the next fifteen years, the American rendezvous was an annual event mooving to different locations. usually somewhere on the Green River in the future state of Wyoming each rendezvous occurring during the Slack summer period. allowed the fur traders to trade for and collect the furs from the trappers and their Native American allies. without having the expense of building or maintaining a forord. or wintering over in the cold rockies and only a few weeks at a rendezvous A year's worth of trading and celebrating would take place. As the traders took their furs and remaining supplies back east for the winter and the trappers faced another fallen winter with new supplies Trapper Jim Beckworth described the scene as one of mirth, songs, dancing, shouting. Trading, running, jumping, singing Racing target shooting yarns Trollag with all sorts of extravagancies that white men or Indians could invent In eighteen thirty, William Subblet brought the first wagons carrying his trading goods up the plat ad and sweetwater rivers before crossing over south Past to a fur trade rendezvous on the Green River ne'ar the future town of Big Piny, Wyoming. He had a crew that dug out the gullies and river crossings and cleared the brush where needed This established that the eastern part of most of the Oregon trail was passable by wagons In the late eighteen thirties, the HBC instituted a policy intended to destroy or weaken the American fur trade companies The HPC's annual collection and resupply Snake River expedition. was transformed into a trading enterprise Beginning in eighteen thirty four It visited the American rendezvous to undersell the American traders losing money but undercutting the American fur traders By eighteen forty, the fashion in Europe and British shifted away from the formerly very popular beaver feld hats Prices for furs rapidly declined And the trapping almost ceased Fur traders tried to use the Platt River the main route of the easastern Oregon trail for transport but soon gave up in frustration as its many channels and islands combineed with its muddy waters or too shallow Pected and unpredictable to use for water transport proved to be unnaevigable Platt River and the North Platt River Valley, however became an easy roadway for wagons with its nearly flat plane sloping easily up and heading almost due west. Several U. S. government sponsored explorers explored part of the Oregon trarail and wrote extensively about their explorations Captain Benjamin Bonneville on his expedition of eighteen thirty two to eighteen thirty four explored much of the Oregon trarail and brought wagons up the plaid Plad swweet water route. across South Pass to the Green River in Wyoming He explored most of Idaho and the Oregon Trail to the Columbia The account of his expeditions in the West was published by Washington Irving in eighteen thirty eight John C. Fremont of the U. S. Army's Corps of topopographical Engineers and his guide, Kid Carson three expeditions from eighteen forty two to eighteen forty six. over parts of California and Oregon His explorations were written up by him and his wife, Jesse Brenton Freemon and were widely published. The first detailed maps of California and Oregon were drawn by Fremont and his topographers and cartographers in about eighteen forty eight In eighteen thirty four, the Dell's Methodist mission was founded by Reverend Jason Lee just east of Mount Hood on the Columbia River In eighteen thirty six, Henry H. Spalding and Marcus Whitman traveled west to establish the Whitman mission, near modern day Walla Walla, Washington The party included the wives of the two men Narcissa Whidman and Eliza Hard Spalding became the first European American women to cross the Rocky Mountains E route, the party accompanied American fur traders going to the eighteen thirty six rendezvous on the Green River in Wyoming and then join Hudson's Bay Company for trraders Traveling west to Fordenz Pse. alsoso called Fort Wallawalla. The group was the first to travel in wagons to Fort Hall where the wagons were abandoned at the urging of their guides. They used pack animals for the rest of the trip to Fort Wallawalla and then floated by boat to Fort Vancouver to get supplies before returning to start their missions other missionaries Mostly husband and wife teams using wagon and pack trains established missions in the Wulammed Valley as well as various locations in the future states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho On may first, eighteen thirty nine A group of eighteen men from Poria, Illinois set out with the intention of colonizing the Oregon country. On behalf of the United States of America and driving out the HBC operating there The men of the Peoria partarty were among the first pioneers to traverse most of the Oregon trail They were initially led by Thomas J. Farnum and called themselves the Oregon Dragoons They carried a large flag and blaze in with their motto Oregon or the grave Although the group split up near Bent Fort on the South Plid, and Farnum was deposed as leader nine of their members eventually did reach Oregon In september eighteen forty, Robert Newell Joseph L. Meeek and their families reached Fort Wallawalla with three wagons. driven from Fort Hall Their wagons were the first to reach the Columbia River overland and they open the final leg of the Oregon trail to wagon traffic. In eighteen forty one, the Bartlesson Bidwell Party was the first immigrant group credited with using the Oregon trail to imigrate west. The group set out for California But about half the party who left the original group at Soda Springs, Idaho proceeded to the Willemma Valley in Oregon leaving their wagons at Fort Hall On may sixteenth, eighteen forty two, the second organized wagon train set out from Elmgrove, Missouri with more than one hundred pioneers partarty was led by Elijah Wnt The group broke up after passing Fort Hall, was most of the singlemen hurrying ahead and the families following later.